On August 7, the 78th death anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, an exhibition began at the Jorasanko campus, Rabindra Bharati University (RBU) in Kolkata to highlight the mutual respect between Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi.
“Titled ‘Smarane barane Gurudev o Mahatma’ (Remembering and recalling Gurudev and Mahatma), the exhibition would showcase correspondence between the ‘two great souls of India’, besides displaying archival photos,” a university official said.
Smarane barane Gurudev o Mahatma would also display a rare picture of Tagore’s meeting with Gandhi which took place on March 6 in 1915 at the Santiniketan for the first time, university Curator Baisakhi Mitra told PTI.
It will be open on all days except for national holidays. The exhibits have been sourced from the university’s archive and also from the National Gandhi Museum. It will have 22 panels having archival photos and correspondence – letters and telegrams – during the period from 1915 to 1941, she said.
“There is also the last correspondence between the two in May 1941 – Gandhi’s telegram on ‘Pochise Baisakh’ (the date in Bengali calendar associated with Tagore’s birthday) – and the poet’s witty reply to the same. It is our prized possession,” Mitra said.
“We are holding this exhibition to mark the death anniversary of Tagore and the 150th birth anniversary of Gandhi. A Annamalai, Director of National Gandhi Museum, will deliver a speech at the inauguration, dwelling on the respect shared by the two great souls of India,” she said.
The photos of Gandhi’s first visit to Tagore’s ancestral house at Jorasanko in 1901 to meet Maharshi Debendranath Tagore (Rabindranath Tagore’s father) in the company of great Bengali thinker Shibnath Shastri will also be on display.
The exhibition has been organised to make the present generation aware of the relations between Tagore and Gandhi, RBU Vice-Chancellor Sabyasachi Basu Roy Chowdhury said.
(With PTI inputs)